The present invention relates to xerographic reproduction machines and more specifically to such a machine having a user active interface feature for communicating with a user during a reproduction function that involves a long and variable user activity.
As the art of xerographic copying has matured, the design of xerographic reproduction machines or printers has also matured. Xerographic copiers and printers which include programmable controllers are now capable of making copies from sheet originals, from book pages and forms, and of stapling a desired number of such copies into sets for stacking in an output tray. Different copying options are available on various versions of a basic machine so that while one version may have a recirculating document handler for automatically moving sheet original documents over a platen, another may only have a platen and platen cover requiring the user to manually insert a document such as a book thereonto for copying.
In addition to the copying options, certain convenience and quality control features are also available on such machines for making it easier for a user to interact with the machine when producing desired copies. Automatic billing equipment, for example, automatically informs the user of what client the particular job being run on the copier is performed for, and also how many copies that particular job entails. Other convenience features added to the xerographic copier allow the user to more efficiently and intelligently interact with the copier. Human Factors Engineering has made it easier for an uninitiated operator to learn how the copier operates and how to diagnose and correct faults when they occur in the copier operation.
For such interaction, alphanumeric displays have been used to both prompt and alert the user of copier status as well as of faults. Statements such as "Standby," "Please Wait," "Ready," "Insert Documents," and "Select Number of Copies," have been used to alert the user to the status and operation of the copier. Similar display units have generated alphanumeric error codes which refer the user to a flip chart giving instructions on how to correct various problems and/or faults encountered during copier operation.
Although not commercially exploited to the extent of alphanumeric displays, graphic displays have also been suggested and used as ways to further educate the copier user regarding the status of the copier. As disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,806 issued Oct. 9, 1984, to Daughton et al., these graphic displays or icons graphically illustrate a copier configuration and can involve the use of selectively energizable elements to cue the user as to what portion of the copier needs attention and/or maintenance. Thus, in a copier incorporating a recirculating document handler, a flashing icon of such a document handler positioned in relation to the rest of the copier may indicate to the user a jam in the paper circulating in the document handler. This type of queuing can be particularly effective when coupled with an alphanumeric message reenforcing the user's perception that he has been educated as to the source of his problem.
Of the various functions performed by such reproduction machines, book copying is one of the more complex and problematic. As disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,617 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,212,568, book copying ordinarily involves mode selection, and problematic variable activities such as and reregistration on the platen, of a book being copied.
Acquaviva, U.S. Pat. No. 4,716,439 issued Dec. 29, 1987, discloses a printing machine in which two original documents supported on a platen are flash illuminated to record latent images thereof on a charged photoconductive surface. To record reproduce as two separate copies a latent image of one document is erased after a first flash illumination in order to record only that of the other document, and after a second flash illumination, the latent image of the other document is erased in order to record only that of the one document.
In Komari et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,017,173 issued Apr. 12, 1977, an open book is positioned on the platen of the copying machine. The optical system is a scanning system wherein the light source, lens and mirrors move across the platen to illuminate successive incrementals of the document positioned on the platen. A control system controls the movement of the optical system such that it moves across one-half of the book to record an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive surface corresponding to one page thereof. Thereafter, the optical system moves across the other half of the book to record an electrostatic latent image corresponding to the other page of the book on the photoconductive surface. These electrostatic latent images are developed and transferred to different copy sheet surfaces. The copy sheet surfaces may be on opposite sides of the same copy sheet or on different copy sheets.
Xerox Disclosure Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, March/April 1983, page 121, discloses an electrostatographic printing machine using a flash illumination system. A control system regulates the flash illumination system such that a document being advanced across the platen by a document handling unit is flash exposed once when the first half of the original document is positioned on the platen and flash exposed a second time when the second half of the original document is located on the platen.
Book copying methods and apparatus in a copying machine, suitable for copying sheet documents of various sizes, normally provide for varying the positioning and registration of the book on a platen magnification of the book image in order to prevent the production of book page copies with darkened edges. Reselection of the bookcopying mode from one to two-sided copying or vice versa ordinarily also requires repositioning and registration of an open book being copied. In addition, because a job of copying a book can take a long period of time, in addition to involving both modes of copying pages thereof, an operator is likely to forget a selected mode, and as a result fail to produce desired copies, or undesirably produce unwanted copies.
There is therefore a need to provide in a reproduction machine a user active interface feature including animated marking and communication means for guiding and directing an operator through a book copying function so as to minimize confusion and errors that ordinarily would resort from such a long function that involves variable user activities.